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15 November 2006

Scott Mckeating

Albums and Singles

Tracking down Graveyards releases is like taking on a part time job. Scattering their music across miniscule private press labels blink-and-miss-it editions, the current threat level of incoming albums is always elevated. Being a trio with a sax player, they’re often tagged as jazz or scumjazz, but their reach goes much further that the remit of those genres.

Meudiademorte

As a unit John Olson (Wolf Eyes), Hans Buetow and Ben Hall (both members of Mêlèe and Death Knell) easily transcend the limitations of tags. Their albums don’t appear to be compiled or released in any sort of chronological order, their evolution scattered randomly across CD-Rs, cassettes and vinyl. The frequency of their musical discharges may make it look like these things are just being shat out, but the quality shows that this is light years from the truth.

This particular cassette release is a typically good looking package for the band, a Princely purple wraparound card sleeve and a pile of hand drawn skulls, the handmade aesthetic matching their idiosyncratic path. Through their hours of jams (and being members of numerous different projects), Graveyards have mastered the ability to have numerous distinctive sounds they can cross pollinate. Like some swelling and engorging mass, they sound distinctly like themselves, but utterly different from their other releases at the same time. Head and shoulders above the innumerable ancillary and pristine studio units of the improvising trio world, the fidelity here is just above the usual American Tapes murk levels.

This is a generally more structured release, with Ben Hall leading the way with simple percussion patterns that move between brutal loops and the threateningly restrained tethering of tempos. Tapped out cymbal knocks create stiletto patterns over a deep bass note drone, leaving Olson warming the air in-between. The Graveyards music here bristles with safety pinned energy, carried by a wind from a deep, dirty pit. A battered bell and metal percussion led piece, “Three” has Olson and Buetow invoking ghosts, replying and entwining with Hall’s brutality. Each player seems to know exactly when to keep it in or drag it out. The other untitled highlight, “Two”, haemorrhages an unspoiled regurgitation of sawn cymbal sound with a Staccato cello taking the strain. The horn moving from braying howl to mournful passage on this cut perfectly sums up the trio’s refusal to sit comfortably.

15 November 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

With the Brainwaves fest this weekend, don't be surprised if Brainwashed's content isn't being published much over the weekend and early into the following week. Perhaps the Podcast will not publish, but for those not attending the events, go through some of the archives, watch a video, listen to Brainwashed Radio.
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15 November 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Karen Dalton
In My Own Time (CD & LP)

(Originally Released 1971)

CD Available Now
180gram LP Available Late Nov

1.) Something on Your Mind
2.) When A Man Loves A Woman
3.) In My Own Dream
4.) Katie Cruel - FULL MP3
5.) How Sweet It Is
6.) In A Station
7.) Take Me
8.) Same Old Man
9.) One Night Of Love
10.) Are You Leaving For The Country

"My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday's and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed." - Bob Dylan

"She is my favorite female blues singer." - Nick Cave

"Without a doubt, she is my favorite singer." - Devendra Banhart

"She sure can sing the shit out of the blues." - Fred Neil

Download MP3!
Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel

> Buy CD or Limited Edition 7" @ LightInTheAttic.net

* First Time on CD + First Vinyl Reissue
* Bonus EP Featuring Previously Unreleased Tracks
(Only Available on iTunes starting Mid-Nov)
* Remastered from the Original Tapes
* CD includes 32pg Deluxe Booklet
* Exclusive liner notes from Lenny Kaye, Nick Cave,
and Devendra Banhart
* Limited Edition 7" with Pic Sleeve Also Available

The late Karen Dalton has been the muse for countless folk rock geniuses, from Bob Dylan to Devendra Banhart, from Lucinda Williams to Joanna Newsom. Legendary singer Lacy J. Dalton actually adopted her hero's surname as her own when she started her career in country music. Karen Dalton had that affect on people - her timeless, aching, blues-soaked, Native American spirit inspired both Dylan & The Band's "Katie's Been Gone" (on 'The Basement Tapes') and Nick Cave's "When I First Came To Town" (from 'Henry's Dream').

Recorded over a six month period in 1970/71 at Bearsville, 'In My Own Time' was Dalton's only fully planned and realized studio album. The material was carefully selected and crafted for her by producer/musician Harvey Brooks, the Renaissance man of rock-jazz who played bass on Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" and Miles' "Bitches Brew". It features ten songs that reflected Dalton's incredible ability to break just about anybody's heart - from her spectral evocation of Joe Tate's "One Night of Love," to the dark tragedy of the traditional "Katie Cruel." Known as a great interpreter of choice material, Dalton could master both country and soul genres with hauntingly pining covers of George Jones' "Take Me" and Holland-Dozier-Holland's "How Sweet It Is."

From the exclusive liner notes by Lenny Kaye ("Nuggets," Patti Smith Group):

"Karen's mother was full Cherokee, and told her that if your vibrations were right, plants would grow into your room, as Karen had grown onto the Village folk scene. She had the Beat spirit as well, the existential angst which felt life was dark, perpetually in pain, and that was how you became your art, if you were a real artist.'

"'Karen was tall, willowy, had straight black hair, was long-waisted and slender, what we all wanted to look like,' Lacy J. Dalton said. And her blend of influences - the jazz of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, the immersion of Nina Simone, the Appalachian keen of Jean Ritchie, the R&B and country that had to seep in as she made her way to New York from Oklahoma - created a 'voice for the jaded ear.'"

Karen Dalton on MySpace

Light In The Attic
Records & Distribution
www.lightintheattic.net
P.O. Box 31970
Seattle, WA 98103

14 November 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Brothers John and Michael Gibbons of Bardo Pond take an exquisite and enjoyable side trip into harmonious interstellar regions with this low-key study of vibrations. With stripped down instrumentation, they drift into shimmering passages of temporal displacement.

The Lotus Sound

"Apostacy" starts with an acoustic guitar in each channel, accompanied by hand drums and rattles. After a brief pause halfway through, the direction of the song changes into something a little more strident. Before long, a mind-shifting sax enters, altering the mood into soothing transcendence. In the background toil drums with heavy reverb that accent the piece but never dominate. "Blood Sacrafice (for JD)" starts and ends with the only vocals to be found on the album, a sampled voice that describes the Big Bang as the original force of the universe. Rapid hand drums and electronic drones comprise this song and while it‚Äôs not a terrible detour, it‚Äôs the least satisfying track.

Amplified guitar notes hang in space on "The Medicine of the Third Order," as a quietly churning noise hovers in the background, adding a nebulous presence that‚Äôs a balm of sorts. Of the four songs on the album, "Deliquium" is the monster, taking up half of the total running length. It features two acoustic guitars again, but this time the tempo is more relaxed and lackadaisical. The brothers repeat a gentle musical phrase with minor variations, and the effect is relaxing and peaceful, suitable for blissful meditation. Only in the last minute do the strums grow more insistent, as if trying to send out pulses that will linger on in outer space well after the song‚Äôs over.

It‚Äôs a satisfying album equally at home in the dark or in daylight, and one that illuminates the promises offered by distant horizons.

samples:

¬†

14 November 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

After several months of hefty improv submersion it‚Äôs possible to cultivate the taste buds enough to be able to sift out the quality from the claptrap. This is most definitely the former, a 21 minute improvised freak out wrapped in a brain-splurge primary colored aggro cover

Low Point

The latest in Low Point‚Äôs 3" CD-R series sees various luminaries of the Manchester scene (pulled from Inca Eyeball, Sculptress and Our Beautiful Ridiculous Plan) pouring out their heads into a cauldron of kaleidoscopes. The highest praise here goes to the drummer who sounds like he‚Äôs leading the proceedings from the back; the rest of the quartet squalling in his wake like sparks from a firework. The cracked open snake pit of guitars could‚Äôve ended up a mush of sounds if not for the fine recording job here by label head Gavin Hardwick.

"Beta Carotene"s creak-and-jerk onslaught begins with a manic sonic attack that slows down about half way though, as if everyone had got the caffeine (and the rest) out of their system. This whistling and drum lull (and low-key guitar work) court each other carefully till a Thurston/Ranaldo holocaust bursts into the room.

Again it‚Äôs the drummer who seems to be directing the performance as the music threatens to roll off the road into some Turkish psychedelic murder spree. The band lands in a pattern of heaving itself to its knees before being slumping to the floor as if shot in the head. The sounds rises and falls, rises and falls until a timely loose percussive end.

samples:

Beta Carotene

¬†

12 November 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Tor Lundvall: Yule

Tor Lundvall
YULE

Tor Lundvall Announces a "Ghost Ambient" Release for the Yule Season

Electronic music artist Tor Lundvall is enjoying something of a breakthrough year in 2006, his Empty City album of evocative "ghost ambient" tracks generating his highest critical attention and fastest sales to date. Tor's music was heard this month on NPR radio stations by 200,000 listeners, on the famous "Hearts of Space" radio program.

Announced today is Tor Lundvall's next release, a limited edition EP called Yule, described as "snowy soundscapes and celebratory songs for the season."

Tor explains with his Yule EP he has attempted to capture "another side" of the holiday season than the typical Christmas album, offering all original compositions in a "blurred and distant," slightly melancholic form.

Release date for Tor Lundvall's Yule EP is set as Thanksgiving 2006. It is to be a numbered limited edition of 333 copies, and will be available only directly from the label at www.strangefortune.com.

Make it a "ghost ambient" Yule this year and get in your preorder for Tor Lundvall's Yule EP:

http://strangefortune.com/cd.php?id=2811

Strange Fortune
www.strangefortune.com
The source for strange & exquisite sounds

Strange Fortune / PO Box 440383 / Somerville MA 02144 USA

07 November 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

artist: Deerhunter
title: Cryptograms
catalog #: krank104
formats available: CD
CD UPC Code: 7 96441 81042 0
Release Date: January 29, 2007

Content: Cryptograms is the second full-length offering from Deerhunter, and their first for Kranky. The album took almost two years to finish and was the product of emotional, physical, and financial strain on the group. The result is an album that finds the band shifting from discordant catharsis, and forming a sonic identity that completely expresses the place from which they have arrived. The album functions in part as a study in duality and the concept of the same experiences seen from two angles, present and past. The most obvious manifestation of this is in the chronological sequencing. The first half of the album was recorded first unsuccessfully in 2005. These recordings were a blur at best, wordless and bordering on psychological atrophy. The sessions failed to provide anything tangible, and were racked with technical and personal problems, including out-of-tune pianos, panic attacks, and a tape machine that seemed to fail to capture the full spectrum of ambience the band was exploring. The band returned home, having failed, and considered giving up. The idea arose to give it one last shot and exactly one year from the date of the recording of their first self-titled LP at a small studio in rural GA, they returned to that same studio and plugged in. The session resulted in the first half of the record which was recorded in one day and completely filled the reel of tape they brought with them. Cryptograms’ first side begins with an introduction leading to the title track, and ends with the tape literally spinning off the end of the reel in the middle of a drone layered with bells and accordion (“Red Ink”). The second half of the record, also recorded in one day, in the November of 2005, represents the band in an entirely different state. “Spring Hall Convert” opens with the line, “…so I woke up…” and introduces a set of focused psyche-pop songs fixating on adolescence, illness, and failing connections.

Context: Deerhunter began in 2001 with the ambition of fusing the lulling hypnotic states induced by ambient and minimalist music with the klang and propulsion of garage rock. The band has weathered chaotic line-up changes, the death of a member, and much discouragement. Their live performances almost always leave audiences polarized, and have been referred to by Karen O of the yeah yeah yeah’s in NME as bordering on “a religious experience.” They are based in Atlanta.
Track Listing: 1. Intro 2. Cryptograms 3. White Ink 4. Lake Somerset 5. Providence 6. Octet 7. Red Ink 8. Spring Hall Convert 9. Strange Lights 10. Hazel St. 11. Tape Hiss Orchid 12. Heatherwood

Quote: "…a massive, psych-heavy, art-damaged five-piece, and one of the most inspired new bands we've heard in quite a while. Deerhunter's forthcoming Kranky debut -- not to mention their absolutely fucking insane live shows-- is likely to make them one of the most talked-about bands of 2007." Pitchfork 10.23.06

31 October 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Not a mysterious Frenchman in fact, Benoit Pioulard is Thomas Meluch, another Midwestern boy mutating folk tradition through personal mythology, only this time it’s not founded on states in the Union or suburban Americana but on the fuzzy sublime of forests and oceans, cryptic continental romance and Bergman films.

Kranky

Précis is home-recorded, and the hermetic warmth and flayed edges of its creation become part of this music in an intimate way. Pioulard plays brisk autumn marches at Janschian speed while leaves and waves and tiny lights build up a thin swirling of lofi electronic noise around. His low croon is the timeless, orchestrated sound of British folk singers, leading, but always just part of the mix, nestled and mumbled in a golden vagueness. Weaker tracks are surprisingly the ones least bogged down in the smoke and mirrors of Pioulard’s bedroom production, ones where the vocal and guitar seem at competition in an anxious clinging to his mopey, jangly structures. The aching ballads and death shanties of “Palimend” and “Together & Down” work best, leafy static layers hanging above the boy with guitar, pulling him up and along with a spooky separation.

Titles “Coup de Foudre” and “Sous la Plague” emphasize the sublime evocations of such heady atmosphere; the singer in these songs is a participant only as much as he is swept away and disintegrated. Songs are suite-like or heavily cyclical, smartly straying from emphasized refrains or dynamics that would simplify or materialize the atmosphere’s glittering hover. Pioulard is an excellent writer of moods, and whether his lyrics are clichéd or unintelligible, the melancholy sentiment, autumnal glory and earnest pleadings of his songs come through in a refreshingly direct way. Despite European posturing, his images of spirit-filled desolation and romantic death feel easily approachable, universal beauties with youthful hope that I can believe in.

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31 October 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Perhaps Planet Mu's clearest attribute is founder Mike Paradinas' willingness to put out diverse releases from artists he believes in regardless of where they lie on the electronic music spectrum. Yet as this budget-priced compilation demonstrates, it's also the label's most obvious weakness.

Planet Mu

The once-pioneering Warp Records tread down this path before, initiating with the then-revolutionary cream of the Sheffield bleep crop, boldly defining intelligent dance music with its Artificial Intelligence series, and redefining it over and over again. Then, something happened. Risk taking, which had served the label so well in the past, stopped panning out, and many fans who relied on Warp as tastemakers recoiled and migrated away, turning to it on a release-by-release basis as opposed to on blind faith. These days it is impossible to say what kind of label Warp is or even wants to be, and the same applies to Planet Mu. Sacred Symbols of Mu spasmodicaly aims to please through segmentation of its audience, through fragmentation of the sounds it currently mines, ultimately for naught. Based on that premise, conceivably the listener is bound to be happy less than 18% of the time, excepting the handful of devoted fanboys who frequent the label's online message board.

The compilation missteps from the very start with Dykehouse's "The Unbearable Phatness of Being," which basically sounds like a nearly decent outtake from one of Moby's recent limp offerings for Mute. A glut of downtempo and ambient snoozers litter both discs, from the dull folktronica stylings of Leafcutter John's "Lesson" to Lo Recordings' act Mileece's kiddie-sampling, blatant B.O.C. ripping "Tau." Regrettably, the formerly visionary Venetian Snares' digresses further into tired Aphex Twin drill n' bass regurgitation on "Chinaski R.I.P." In an even more dismaying turn, the first new material from Jega in over half a decade fails to dazzle as hoped. Even µ-Ziq himself leaves a bad taste in my mouth with the noodling, glitchy "Wergle The Proud."

I would be remiss, however, not to give credit to the artists here who threaten the overall atmosphere of mediocrity. With "That Track," Shitmat proves once again that he reigns supreme as once and future king of the breakcore scene, regardless of whether or not said scene chooses to accept that or not. Virus Syndicate, despite my general and well-documented dislike for grime, somehow finds a way to entice me with "Neva," another classic MRK 1 production that ranks almost as high as the incredible "Ready To Learn," whose template is recycled here to profound effect. Pinch and DJ Distance rep the dubstep sound hard, though the peerless Vex'd devastate all with the coveted "3rd Choice." Still, of these cited highlights, only three are previously unreleased, making this compilation hardly worth the already discounted price of admission.

Worse than the stagnant acts that participated are those lamentably excluded or otherwise absent. Neither Hellfish nor The DJ Producer are represented here, a crying shame as One Man Sonic Attack Force, the former's 2005 album, was so impressive. While I'm fully aware their releases for Planet Mu are typically comprised of licensed material from Deathchant, as two of the label's finest they should have had some kind of presence. Omitted artists like Benga, Dolphin & The Teknoist, Hatcha, and Neil Landstrumm could have saved Sacred Symbols of Mu from being such a colossal flop. At least Frog Pocket didn't contribute.

samples:

Shitmat - That Track
Pinch - Punisher
Mileece - Tau

31 October 2006

Scott Mckeating

Albums and Singles

Crushing drone and noise into a static mash, John Schofield (if indeed it is him, the credits are sketchy) builds a formidable psychedelic wall on this cracked three-tracker.

First Person

The middle untitled piece of this three-tracker clambers along rusted arthritic grooves, its face in a pillow bellow sounding like a reversing engine grunt. But it’s the first and last of these three tracks that satisfy the most, finding a space between isolationism and monochrome psychedelia. Flirting with Haino-esque notes run through a Dead C filter, the loose metallic strings ring out like spiralling bells through the dimness. The unpeeling, shining black sounds deep inside these two pieces takes them light years away from run-of-the-mill feedback sourced rust jobs.

29 October 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Although as per usual, the performance is short (only around 30 minutes) this is a powerful and exciting album. Slowly building up like a stalker moving through the bushes before ending in a bloody mess, this is Wolf Eyes at the top of their game. Braxton fits in perfectly, adding an extra dimension to the noise that lifts Black Vomit from being just another Wolf Eyes live CD to an essential release.

Victo

The first track, “The Mangler,” is actually a couple of different pieces in one. Starting as a slow and menacing soundscape where Braxton and John Olsen duel with their saxophones like two jungle cats. Around them sheets of metal and electric humming adds a truckload of danger to the piece. The din simmers for about 20 minutes with the four players feeding off each other magnificently. There is a lot of restraint shown by all of them and when the performance finally bubbles over into “Stabbed in the Face” it hits with a lot more fury than I had anticipated. Nathan Young’s and Mike Connely’s vocals sound more cutting than the razor sharp feedback that erupts throughout the whole set. I’m sure if I played the disc any louder I’d be bleeding.

For the encore Braxton is asked whether he’d prefer “Leper War” or “Black Vomit” to which he gleefully demands the latter, although the sleeve notes list it as “Rationed Rot.” From his tone of voice (and indeed his playing) it is obvious that he is having the time of his life. The noise may be unsettling but the vibes from the players are good. All four are clearly enjoying themselves immensely and on the very odd occasions when the crowd are audible, it sounds like they’re enjoying themselves too. When the music ends I almost end up applauding myself!

When compared to much of the Wolf Eyes catalogue, the production on Black Vomit is crystal clear. Each of the players is given space to breath in the mix instead of it being one mess of sound. The only problem is the brevity of the performance; I could listen to this for a lot longer. However, that’s something I expect of Wolf Eyes now, indeed the short performance adds to the power of the punch and there’s always the “repeat” button. Along with Human Animal, Black Vomit has renewed my faith in Wolf Eyes after some very stale releases by them.

samples: